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Create game rooms, characters and game art using the 13" x 13" Gameboard and 320 blocks in eight different colors

When creating game rooms, each color in your design represents a different element, like green for terrain, blue for water or red for a hazard. When working on art, the color blocks represent the pixel art

From the manufacturer

​Build Your Own Video Games!

​Bloxels is an innovative video game development platform that allows you to create your own video games. With easy-to-use physical and digital tools, the imaginative gaming worlds of young gamer's come to life in a cool retro arcade style. You decide what the game looks like and configure how it is played. You tell the story of the characters and design their looks. You create the obstacles and the power-ups. And then not only can you play, but you can share your game with fellow gamer's for both game play and content remixing.

​Blocks to Bloxels!

Game development is easy. Download the free Bloxels Builder app to your compatible device (not included) and get started. Create an unlimited number of games, starting with the map of your world - add game rooms (up to 169) for endless hours of creation and play. Use the 13 x 13 game board and colored blocks to build a room’s layout, create and apply backgrounds, add story blocks, place coins, lay ‘pixel bombs’ and hide hazards. Snap a picture with the ‘in-app camera’ and then continue building with the digital editor.

​Design Is Easy and Elemental!

​You can add the elements and artwork (or use existing options) within the rooms in the same way, using the colored blocks and Bloxels game board, then snapping a pic. Create up to 169 elements in each room and decorate with artwork you create. The same process works for the creation of characters, from hero to villain. As you create, you have the opportunity to animate, test and reconfigure instantly!

Product description

Style:Bloxels: Original

Product Description

​Build your own video games with Bloxels! The innovative video game creation platform makes concepting and execution easy. Watch your game world come to life as you create and animate play spaces, characters and objects because you are the artist, game designer, storyteller, programmer, publisher AND player! The physical pieces in the Bloxels game set work with the free Bloxels Builder app to digitize your creations, put them on-screen and make them playable. Just download the FREE Bloxels Builder app to your smart device (not included) to get started. Then use the 13 x 13 Gameboard and colored blocks to design a room, create the art for game elements and bring your heroes and villains to life. When creating game rooms, each color in your design represents a different element, like terrain, water or a hazard. When working on art, the blocks represent the pixelated image. There are eight different colors and 320 blocks for lots of endless possibilities. Once you have finished adding blocks, snap a picture with the "in-app camera" to digitize your creation. Go from blocks to "bloxels" instantly! On-screen test your game, edit layouts and change the colors of your art assets. The process of building the game is easy to follow, with instructions and tutorials to help beginners. From creating the map of your game to animating your characters to adding power-ups to full-on playing, you make the decisions and produce the work. When your game is ready for the world to play, post it to the Bloxels Infinity Wall to share. Fellow 13-bit builders can play your game and buy your creations to use in their own games, earning you coins. Coins you earn can be used to buy content from other players to remix within your game in new and creative ways. How will your game evolve? How will it start? What story will you tell? Get ready to get in the game -- video game development -- with Bloxels. Includes Gameboard, 320 blocks, challenge poster and instruction manual; the Bloxels Builder app is downloadable for free. For a list of the latest supported devices, please visit www.BloxelsBuilder.com. Colors and decorations may vary.

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Now here is an epic idea. Take a pinch of Minecraft, a hint of Legos, along with classic platform video games and turn it into a toy that not only allows children to play those video games, but to help craft them too. Seriously, as a former computer programmer, I think that idea alone deserves a slow hand clap. Let kids be creative, let them THINK, and also let them play. Awesome.

I got this for my 11-year old son, but I had to take it for a spin myself for this review. (This is going to be a reward or a Christmas present later, I think. Don’t tell him!)

I installed the app on my Android tablet. One thing that was clear from the app is that there are a lot of young craftsman out there creating games. Also impressive is that Mattel has created an easy-to-use interface that allows these designers to share and play each other’s work. That’s what the Internet is all about!

After exploring the app for a bit, I got to work on the test pattern you’re supposed to create on the bioxels board to sync it with the app. That was a little tricky and took a lot of tries and different lighting conditions. My advice: get in a heavily lit room, and place the board on a surface that will make it stand out. A solid and light-colored place-mat works well. (Don’t place it on a glass or dark-colored table!) Eventually I was able to input the test pattern.

Next I started on my own background pattern. I created a simple one borrowing from one of the bioxel examples. After a few minutes of trying I wasn’t able to get it uploaded to the app. Even on the same background and lighting conditions as I used before. Bummer!

Then I discovered that the included board isn’t really necessary to the design process. A designer can do it all via the app too—picking colored blocks from a palette and dropping them onto a virtual board. The plastic board is only necessary to give the game a tactile dimension. My guess is that most bioxel designers stop using the plastic board after only a few tries. (Unless they farm out design aspects to siblings!)

So, really, this kit is a way to purchase access to the bioxels app and network. That’s where all the magic happens. It also makes a nice gift you can wrap for Christmas and serves as a good starting point. The instructions are clearly written to appeal to kids. I would’ve liked a little more straightforward and structured explanation, but what is here should be adequate for your young designer. Colorful and intriguing.

All in all, this kit is a fantastic concept implemented in an appealing and sure-to-please-your-kids way. I recommend it!

** Update: I wanted to add a note here now that my son has opened and used this kit. It was the first thing he played with after the Christmas gifts were all unwrapped. The first time I checked in on him, he was busy syncing the board to our tablet. The next time I checked he had stopped, saying he was "bored" and "stuck". What he really meant was that he couldn't go any further because his access to the online bloxels world wasn't set up. After I walked him through that he immediately went back to designing. Within a couple hours, he had fairly sophisticated level to show me, complete with a hero and villain characters. I was impressed. He even shared his game with others online. He also was no longer using the board, but designing with only the app. (Like I suspected would happen.) All to say: I still think this is a great toy! My recommendation stands.

** Also, thank you to everyone who has liked this review. I'm glad you found it useful!!

This is so much more than the board game you purchase. This is also an app that you use in conjunction with the board. The board is just the beginning! My 10 year old son absouletly loves Bloxels. He makes his very own video games to play and share. He likes the fact that he can create his own characters, his own levels and tell his own story. He is on the 6th rendition of one of his games and each and every game is better then the last. He is always learning new and exciting things with Bloxels. Bloxels encourages him to get in touch with his creative self and develope his storytelling abilities. As a parent I do not have to monitor or limit his Bloxel time because every minute engages him think, learn and grow. Kudos to the makers of Bloxels!

P.S. If you have any issues or questions, please check out the Bloxels website for support. They are super helpful and happy to answer questions and trouble shoot.

We saw a review of this product on a tech website and immediately ordered it. Since we skipped the extra cost of next day delivery we had time to watch some of the YouTube tutorials and got totally psyched up about what we were going to create!

First things, to address some unanswered questions in the comments:

1. Yes, you can use one board for multiple devices. The physical board does not register any type of code or tie itself to a single iPad or user account.2. Yes, the board is necessary to build levels - but just in the Star Wars version. But the original version allows you to edit levels without the board once you 'register' it with the original iPad app. From there you can do everything without the board - which is a good thing because getting the original app to recognize the blox on the board after that can be difficult.3. No, I can't say that the Star Wars board works with the original iPad app. It does, but it's so frustratingly bad at recognizing the color of the blocks you've placed that we gave up on using the board at all.

Now, on to my personal review.

When it finally arrived we ripped it open and got the apps installed on our devices. We put our YouTube tutorials to use and built a great little map, pulled out the kids' iPad Mini 4 and ... it can't read the board. It can't find the board. After 5 minutes of angling, twisting, panning, zooming, it finally caught an image - but it was completely wrong, flooded with orange pixels and missing most of the ones we'd placed intentionally.

We gave up on that iPad and tried their iPad Mini 2. Similar results, but it does recognize the board and will snap what we build with just a few errors. My iPhone 6s works the best it seems.

So we started playing around and discovered the following:

1. Star Wars version does not allow you to customize characters, blocks, or backgrounds. You are limited to what's provided in the app. All you can do is build the map.2. You are required to build your map levels using the board. You cannot add anything outside of the area recognized by the snapshot you take of the board.3. Lighting conditions where you are working have to be almost perfectly flat. Any glare on the board will result in a misreading of your creation and you can't correct it after snapping it except to delete unintended blocks (lots and lots of them).4. Works well on my iPhone but editing on that small screen is difficult.5. Works best on my older son's iPad Mini 2, does not work at all on my younger son's iPad Mini 4.6. There are no instructions or guides included in the box.7. Not remotely crafted to accommodate color blind kids. One of mine can't see the difference between the fluorescent orange and neon green blocks. He gets so embarrassed when this comes up that he wouldn't tell me if there were any others he has a hard time with.